?Not wanting to embarrass any of our guests to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which opens this morning at the spanking new National Academy for the Performing Arts, this newspaper however finds it necessary to repeat the well known saying, "it takes two to tango." This is in reference to, among other matters, the outstanding and large sums of finance promised by the developed world to underdeveloped countries to compensate them for the effects of world climate change. In particular, reference is made to the commitment by the industrialised nations in the 2001 Bonn Declaration to pay US$410 million annually to 2008 to developing countries to assist in coping with the effects of climate change on their economies.
And this is in recognition of the fact that the toxic emissions which have been slowly destroying the ozone layer, causing increased desertification, inundation of land and other harmful destructions, have been in large measure a result of the production processes adopted by the industrial economies of the world. There is said to be some uncertainty as to when the payments were supposed to have started, hence the estimates of the sums that should have been paid range from US$1.6 billion to US$2.87 billion. One estimate is that a mere US$260 million has been paid so far. The commitment was to make the payments on a bilateral basis, at the multilateral regional level and also through the UN. There is a suggestion that the declaration was made deliberately ambiguous to leave an opening for the industrial countries to default on their pledges.
"There have been promises which have not fully materialised. There is an issue of trust," says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In Port-of-Spain, in addition to the large, rich and powerful Commonwealth states, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, there is expected to be France and Denmark; no doubt there will be senior diplomats from Europe and the US with a watching brief over the discussions. With such a captive audience, the developing countries of CHOGM must stand together to demand that decisions be taken to require that the industrial world lives up to its commitments of Bonn and this message should be sent through to those in the Commonwealth who were part of the Bonn Declaration.
At the other level of the climate change issue, it is good to see that a US administration is promising to reduce its deadly greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent below the 2005 level by 2020. Great to hear too that the world's other major emitter, China, is committing to reductions of 40-45 per cent by 2020. It is the first time that a US administration has come close to even stating a tentative commitment to reducing the levels at which its industrial machinery is churning out greenhouse gasses. This must certainly be a bargaining position with Copenhagen in mind.
Since the recognition of the important role that the 53 Commonwealth states have to play in this global push to sustain life on this planet, the Port-of-Spain meeting, driven by the desires and political will of the small developing members of the grouping, has a responsibility not to settle for easy options for, especially, the industrialised states. The small developing states must know that they have most to lose and little to gain if the rate of industrialisation through harmful technologies is not dramatically curbed. Moreover, they have to pressure the large governments to in turn pressure the industrial giants to find green technologies.
We wish CHOGM well.